WTAC CHAMPIONS CELEBRATED IN FRONT OF HUGE CROWD

WTAC CHAMPIONS CELEBRATED IN FRONT OF HUGE CROWD

A massive crowd at Sydney Motorsport Park has applauded the winners of the Yokohama World Time Attack Challenge 2018 presented by Track Warrior this afternoon.

After two hard-fought days and with a record-setting performance, Barton Mawer (Royal Purple Pro) was heralded as the Royal Purple Pro Class Champion and holder of the outright fastest time of the event.

The V-SPORT CLUBSPRINT class’ available top five were the first to complete their Nulon Superlap Shootout this afternoon.

Unfortunately, the class’ fastest to that point, Stephen Wan, would not take part as he crashed his BYP Racing & Development Honda Civic in the earlier afternoon session.

Brett Dickie (Elusive Racing Honda Integra) meanwhile headed into the Nulon Superlap Shootout third in the standings and pulled out a bell ringer of a lap, with the 1 min 38.756 second time coming in almost two seconds under his previous best to see him become the V-Sport Clubsprint Class Champion.

“I still don’t know (how we found those two seconds), I wish I could tell you that. Going out for the start of our lap, it was wet and it is still raining now, and someone upstairs obviously helped us out, because the sun came out and dried the track pretty quick,” he said right after taking out the win.

“It is a credit to everyone involved, the Elusive Racing guys have put in a massive effort. The car caught fire this morning and we thought we were done – we pushed it over to the corner and thought we would worry about it another day.

“The guys are so stubborn though, they hosed it off, blew it all off, cleaned everything, fired it up and said, ‘go out there and see what you can do.’

“It is (a fairy tale), I am pretty stoked to be involved and build this car with Kenny and Dave and all the Elusive guys, to actually be in the project has been amazing. I can’t say enough about everyone that has helped us. It is a fairy tale, I don’t know what else to say, I am speechless.”

Wan held on to second with Jim Tu (Team EXE OTR Mitsubishi EVO 9) third ahead of Dan Burton (Team Burton Racing Honda Integra) and Jamal Assaad (Evolution Racing Spares EVO 6), who also didn’t take part in the Shootout.

In the Nulon Superlap Shootout for the LINK ECU OPEN class, Adam Casmiri didn’t have to go out for the final stanza but he did anyway. The light dousing of the race track with rain affected the JDM Yard/Hardrace Honda Civic’s run, as it did all five of the Link ECU Open Class runners. Casmiri’s earlier effort of 1 min 27.750 was enough to ensure he became a three-time WTAC class winner.

“With the rain and all the oil early in the day, it really affected everyone’s times I guess! All the other cars I think struggled, I am sure (Matt) Longhurst and myself and everyone would have definitely gone faster if the rain didn’t happen,” surmised Casmiri.

“I have enjoyed the event, Ian (Baker – WTAC CEO) has done a great job as has all of his team, I just can’t thank everyone enough and all of our sponsors and all of our crew.

“We will possibly be coming back next year, we have been running for five years now and I suppose it has taken a lot out of us, a lot of time and a lot of money!”

Josh Coote (MCA Suspension Toyota 86) appeared as though he wanted to better his time but a drama at the final turn before the start of his flyer, which saw the car all out of shape, made him think twice about it. He still finished second ahead of Matt Longhurst (Integrated Motorsport Nissan Skyline GTR R34), Nathan Morcom (Global Aircraft Services Mitsubishi EVO 9) and Steve Johnson (World Best Technology Skyline).

Despite his earlier crash and missing the Nulon Superlap Shootout for the ROYAL PURPLE PRO AM CLASS, team owner-come-driver Kosta Pohorukov (Royal Purple/Tilton Racing) has become the Royal Purple Pro Am Class Champion thanks to his earlier 1 min 24.630 second lap.

“It went pretty good, the car has a lot of speed in it – it is a pity I couldn’t put the numbers together for the team but it is a PB, it is a record for the track for the class, and I still think I have the best team in the world. The support is great, and what a machine of a car,” Pohorukov said.

“I made a little mistake coming out of one (in the morning), I started unwinding the steering wheel just a little bit early and just hit the edge of the ripple strip and I couldn’t bring it back and it just darted me into the wall,” said Pohorukov, who is nursing a broken rib as a result of the crash.

“I think there could have been an easy ’23’ (second lap) for me (in better weather), maybe not: I made a couple of mistakes on my ‘24.6’ that were worth about 1.4 seconds say the engineers, so there is a ‘23’; I just had to hook up all three sectors which I struggled to do all week, but I know there is a ‘22’ in the car – Garth (Walden) would have done a ‘22’ for sure on high boost.

“I am very happy to be here. I am okay, I have a bruised ego, that is about it, the rest of it can be fixed,” he concluded.

Like the earlier Nulon Superlap Shootouts, the weather didn’t favour the outing for the Royal Purple Pro Am class either with only Serse Zeli going quicker after an engine change in the J-Spec Performance Mitsubishi EVO. Even so, it wasn’t enough to jump the second-placed Canadian William Au-Yeung (Vibrant/PZtuning Honda Civic). Just behind him were Richard Perini (PR Technology Ginetta G55) and Dale Malone who had earlier undertaken a massive engine rebuild of his DM Motorsport Nismo Super GT.

When it came to the Nulon Superlap Shootout for the ROYAL PURPLE PRO CLASS, it was only draftee Under Suzuki who would take to the track in Fire Ando’s Escort Racing Mitsubishi EVO.

Suzuki upstaged the regular pilot, Fire Ando, taking the #25 Escort Racing Mitsubishi Lancer to third in class with a 1 min 27.5580 second lap despite having only completed limited laps in the car. Second place went to Warren Luff in the 2017 winning MCA Hammerhead Nissan Silvia S13 – Luff did not appear in the Nulon Superlap Shootout and missed out on the top spot by 1.184 seconds.

While Suzuki impressed, it was Barton Mawer in his RP968 Porsche 968 who was heralded as the Royal Purple Pro Class Champion and holder of the outright fastest time at the Yokohama World Time Attack Challenge 2018 presented by Track Warrior.

Not only did he set a new WTAC record, his 1 min 19.825 second effort was also just seven tenths of a second off the official track race lap record.

“It is pretty amazing isn’t it, this has been a long time coming – those who have been following World Time Attack Challenge will know this car is in its fourth year now,” Mawer said.

“We have known its potential, we have talked about it, it has been written about, so to finally do a ‘sub-20’ which we thought it would have in it is amazing.”

“The first time I drove the car since last year’s event was the Monday just gone, so we were behind the eight ball. But the PR Tech Racing guys just got their heads down and worked and worked.

“After official practice I wasn’t that confident. We had major engine problems, but we pulled through and to get that time is a massive reward, not just for this year but for the years and years of having a go.

“Yeah (we wanted to push for the outright record), we were seven tenths off. I think if we had been able to run this afternoon we may have had another half a second in it, but maybe not outright.

“We didn’t run as we did a valve spring and bent a valve in the last run. It was repairable but not in the time frame that we had – it is lucky that we got the time in this morning when we did!

“Ian Baker (WTAC CEO) here does a great job, the event is truly world class and we love coming here, so let’s celebrate tonight but yes I would be here (next year) in a heartbeat.”

With the winners of Yokohama World Time Attack Challenge 2018 presented by Track Warrior now crowned, the attentions of the crowd here at Sydney Motorsport Park have now turned towards the conclusion of the International Drifting Cup presented by Garrett Advancing Motion.

After round one for all eight pools as well as round two for pools A through D were completed last night, the drifting action continues tonight with the conclusion of the pool battles ahead of the Top Eight, the TTI Gearbox Top Four and the final match-ups. For more information on the new format, please click here.